A mesh- and horizon-robust preconditioner for finite element discretizations of volume-constrained nonlocal diffusion problems

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a preconditioner that is robust with respect to both the mesh size and the interaction horizon for finite element discretizations of volume-constrained nonlocal diffusion problems. Motivated by the Fourier multiplier of the nonlocal operator, we construct the preconditioner $B_h=G_h+\beta\delta^2D_h^{-1}$, where $G_h$ is a symmetric local Poisson solver, $D_h$ is the lumped mass matrix, and $\beta$ is a kernel-dependent constant. We rigorously prove that the spectrum of the $B_h$-preconditioned system is bounded above and away from zero uniformly with respect to the mesh size and horizon. Moreover, we develop a pair-cell assembly for the finite element matrix that preserves the symmetry and positive definiteness required by the preconditioner and PCG, and establish an $L^2$-error estimate for the finite element discretization. Finally, we use a single symmetric geometric multigrid V-cycle for $G_h$ in the numerical experiments, and the corresponding numerical results confirm the predicted convergence rate and show bounded condition numbers and PCG iteration counts over the tested meshes, horizons, and kernels.